International curling returns to Estonia with Le Gruyère AOP Europeans

Previously, the World Junior Curling Championships 2015 had been successfully staged at this venue, just after it opened, but the European championships – with 20 women’s and 26 men’s teams taking part, is larger than the World Juniors.

This year, a total of 26 Member Associations will be represented. For both women and men, tens teams will compete in the A-Division, meanwhile a further ten women’s and 16 men’s teams will compete in the B-Division, which includes the host nation Estonia.

Four nations qualified to compete in the B-Divisions due to performances at the C-Division championships, held in Taarnby, Denmark in April. These were the women’s winners Slovakia and runners-up Poland, and the men’s winners Denmark and runners-up Belarus. Slovenia women were also invited to the B-Division, despite missing out on qualification from the C-Division after Netherlands women did not re-enter the B-Division after 2017.

Round-robin play commences on Saturday 17 November and will continue until Thursday 22 November. The men’s semi-finals will take place in the evening of Thursday 22 November at 19:00, while the women’s semi-finals will be on the afternoon of Friday 23 November at 14:00. The bronze medals will be contested at 19:00 on Friday (23 November) evening, and the finals will be staged on Saturday 24 November – women at 10:00 and men at 15:00.

All times are Eastern European Time (+2 hours from Universal Coordinated Time).

From these Championships, seven men’s teams will qualify their Member Associations for the Pioneer Hi-Bred World Men’s Curling Championship 2019, being held in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada from Saturday 30 March until Sunday 7 April.

Some six women’s teams will qualify for the World Women’s Curling Championship in Silkeborg, Denmark between Saturday 16 March and Sunday 24 March. Event hosts, Denmark are already assured of a place in the World Women’s Championship line-up.

In addition, for both women and men, there will be four places available in the inaugural World Qualification Event, which is being staged in Naseby, New Zealand, between Friday 18 January and Wednesday 23 January. The available European places at the World Qualification Event will go to the two highest ranked teams behind the World qualifiers in the A-Division and the winners and runners-up in the B-Division.

The championships will have extensive TV coverage across Europe and North America, including, for the first time television coverage from the B-Division.

Coverage will also be available live on the event website, the World Curling Federation’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/WorldCurlingTV (geo-blocking may apply in certain territories).

To engage with the World Curling Federation on social media in the build the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2018 follow it on Twitter, Instagram (@WorldCurling) and Facebook (/WorldCurlingFederation) and use the hashtags when posting: #ECC2018 #curling